Another Mobile Competitor Enters the Fray: Walmart Pay Launches

Joining the likes of Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay, Walmart has launched its own mobile payments platform. What does the platform promise, and how will it affect the shopping process in Walmart stores?

Introducing Walmart Pay

Introduced to limited markets on Thursday December 10, Walmart Pay was launched as “a fast, easy and secure way for customers to pay with their smartphones in Walmart stores.”

Allowing customers with any Walmart App-compatible iOS or Android phone to complete transactions using their mobile devices, Walmart Pay will use a QR-code based transaction to pay using a connected credit, debit, or gift card.

Related: Contactless Payments Answer Need for Speed

Walmart Pay will be introduced this month in select stores near Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., with a nationwide launch to be complete by the first half of next year.

“Walmart Pay is the latest example — and a powerful addition — of how we are transforming the shopping experience by seamlessly connecting online, mobile and stores for the 140 million customers who shop with us weekly,” Walmart Global eCommerce president and chief executive Neil Ashe said in a press release.

How Does Walmart Pay Stack Up to Competitors?

Walmart Pay uses QR codes, going in a different direction than NFC-Based mobile payments of Android Pay and Apple Pay, and the Magnetic Secure Transmission/NFC-based mobile payments platform used in Samsung Pay.

How It Works

Walmart Pay’s process was introduced in a short video to show how easy it is.

Walmart Pay will also let customers do things like split their payment between multiple payment types and add their Savings Catcher balances as a payment type.

Related: Customer Loyalty Programs Sweeten Mobile Payments Proposition

Savings Catcher is a Walmart app service that allows customers to upload pictures of their receipts and then scans those receipts to see if competitors offered lower prices on any items. If they did, Walmart refunds the difference with an e-gift card.

Why It Matters, What about MCX/CurrentC?

While Walmart and other MCX retailers await the official launch of CurrentC, which is being tested in Columbus, OH, this is Walmart’s latest move to provide mobile payments keeping control of mobile payments and customer data in house.

With 22 million customers already using the Walmart App, this will allow the retailer a better opportunity to scale, designing the app in a way that will allow integration with other mobile wallets in the future.

Related: Barriers to Use in Mobile Payments

When questioned about the future of MCX and CurrentC, Walmart said it remains committed to MCX, but did not have any updates on a CurrentC national rollout.

Walmart Pay isn’t meant to override those efforts, Ashe says, and Eckert stresses that the two payment options are “really different solutions,” given CurrentC can be used by multiple retailers.

Conclusion

By allowing more visibility into the transaction data, Walmart Pay will continue to provide the retailer the information it wants, while the availability to scale will allow Walmart to reach more customers more easily.

While this may not be in direct competition with Apple, Samsung, or Android Pay services, this does provide a highlight of things to come, both for QR Code-based mobile payments and Walmart’s ability to meet consumer needs from all devices.

Stay up to date with the latest in payments news, follow @WEXincNews on Twitter.

Related Resources

• QR Codes and Mobile Payments
• Connecting the Internet of Things and Payments
• Ecommerce and the Holiday Shopping Season: A Tale of Returns
• Millennials: How They Pay Today
• Samsung Pay and Android Pay Rise to Answer Apple Pay
• Enabling Mobile Payments for Closed loop Private Label Cards
• The Next Big Thing? Wearable Payments
• Mobile Payment Adoption: A Global Snapshot